Rapper ASAP Rocky’s accuser returns to the stand for cross-examination
By Associated Press Reporters
A man who alleges ASAP Rocky fired a handgun at him in 2021 returns to the courthouse on Friday for more cross-examination after a difficult day on the stand.
The defence is expected to continue challenging the man, known as ASAP Relli, on the actual moment of the alleged shooting on a Hollywood street in 2021.
At the end of his testimony on Thursday, he said that his story may have changed over the past three years, but his fading memory does not change what fundamentally happened.
“A gun was pulled on me. It was pointed at me, and it was fired later,” the man, who goes by ASAP Relli, said at the Los Angeles trial of Rocky, his former friend.
“It’s been three years. If he was innocent he would be home a long time ago.”
Rihanna, the superstar singer and Rocky’s partner watched from the audience for the second straight day.
After the jury left for the day, Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold said that he had not heard the latter part of the statement, and would tell them to disregard it when they returned for the rest of the cross-examination Friday.
Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, testified that Rocky pointed a gun at his stomach and head, but it was not actually touching him, and that Rocky said he was going to kill him.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina confronted him with a prosecutor’s interview in 2022 when he said the gun was pressed into his stomach, and he had not remembered what Rocky said.
Relli broke courtroom decorum to shout at Rocky, “You did this to yourself” earlier in the day. The judge admonished him. Relli responded: “He was staring at me!”
Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, sat at the defence table in a black suit and did not audibly respond.
He is charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic handgun for allegedly firing at Relli, his friend since high school.
The charges, with a conviction, could lead to up to 25 years in prison.
Rihanna, who has two toddler sons with Rocky, caused a stir with her first appearance at his trial on Wednesday.
She returned to the same spot in Rocky’s section on Thursday, sitting between his mother and sister. Surreptitiously, she entered the courtroom before most of the audience. She wore a white top and gold earrings and calmly followed the proceedings.
Mr Tacopina’s questioning broached the initial confrontation between Rocky and Relli, but when the trial ended for the day, had still not reached the actual moment when the shots were allegedly fired.
He spent much of it examining Relli’s attitude towards Rocky leading up to the shooting.
Relli was frequently frustrated and evasive, demanding to know why he was being asked certain questions and answering, “I don’t recall” before others were even finished.
He denied that he had been upset with Rocky before the alleged shooting, as the defence confronted him with text messages and previous testimony that suggested otherwise.
“You trying to make me look like I got some kind of animosity toward this dude, I don’t,” he said. “I never did. To this day, I don’t.”
Rocky and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together.
The singer and the rapper, who are both fashion moguls, first became close when he provided a verse when they collaborated on one of her songs in 2012, and became a couple in 2020.